Land of Shadows
by isodel
Summary: When the Forbidden Scroll is returned, the Sandaime decides that he'd rather not be the one to return it to the ninja library. Instead, the genin of Team 7 will experience the perils of an enthusiastic librarian, while Kakashi quests for his holy grail.
1. Chapter 1

"A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of shadows." -Henry Ward Beecher

I am horrible with titles, so I stole from a quote. Hope you enjoy!

_The Beginning_

It was late, but the Sandaime Hokage sat in his office examining the Forbidden Scroll. It was highly unlikely that Mizuki had tampered with it or been able to make a copy, but a shinobi should never leave anything to chance. Besides, there was a very simple way to verify the scroll. Sarutobi would just ask Bunko Yamaguchi to use a special diagnostic jutsu.

Sarutobi paled. If he had Bunko look at the scroll, he would have to return it himself. _How long have I had the scroll_?, he thought. He quickly made two seals, examined the scroll and swallowed. Bunko might have been forgiving if the Forbidden Scroll had been returned on time. Unfortunately, the scroll was rather beat up after the night's events.

A flash of inspiration. _Naruto! Naruto stole the scroll, he can bring it back._ This would be tricky. Naruto would need the right team to pull this off. Luckily, as the Hokage, Sarutobi could get away with changing the genin teams if he wanted to.

_Hmm. _The Aburame boy was quiet. Wait, a few years back an experimental Kikaichu strain had destroyed a rare book. Bunko only allowed the clan to make requests by proxy now. _Someone from a civilian family might be better_. The Haruno girl with the pink hair! She was bookish. And Bunko should have never met her or her family. Who could be the third teammate?

Sarutobi pondered a while, before brilliance struck. _Kakashi would be the perfect instructor. I just need to tell him that rumor._ If Kakashi was on the team, so was Sasuke…. _At least he's not likely to act out, _Sarutobi thought. He leaned back in satisfaction. _Now I won't have to return those library books._


	2. Chapter 2

Iruka sighed. The recent Academy graduation and his current injuries had put him behind the mission assignment desk. It wasn't the worst of tasks, but it was on the dull end of the spectrum. He almost missed the comparative excitement of teaching. _Almost._ While he doubted that any student would top Naruto's … _rambunctiousness, _it would take some time to learn his new students' personality quirks.

Iruka pulled himself back to the mission requests and couldn't help but glance over at the Hokage again. Although it wasn't unusual for the Hokage to help hand out missions, but today something was different. _Was the Hokage smirking?_

Suddenly, the doors burst open. "Hey! Old man, I'm ready for a super awesome mission now!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto! Treat the Hokage with respect!" Iruka snapped automatically. He looked up to see the rest of Team Seven following Naruto into the room. Kakashi and Sasuke looked unaffected by Naruto's outburst, but Sakura seemed annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah. What's the mission?" Naruto asked, bouncing with excitement.

"I believe you'll appreciate this mission," Sarutobi said. "I picked a special one out for you." The smirk was back, Iruka noted.

"Really? That's awesome! Just what the future Hokage deserves!" Naruto said. Sakura was trying to hide a proud smile and Sasuke even appeared to be excited. Only Kakashi seemed concerned. Iruka tried not to worry. _The mission won't be too dangerous. The Hokage is the one assigning it._

"I need you to return these for me," the Hokage said. He lifted several scrolls onto the mission desk. Iruka noticed that one was the Forbidden Scroll. It was looking rather battered after the fight in the forest.

The genin looked confused. Kakashi stepped forward. "I'm going to decline. We'll take a normal D rank," he said.

Sarutobi's smirk returned. "I thought you might say that, Kakashi. Have you ever heard of a series called _Travels of Monomi_?" (1) Iruka's eyes narrowed. The Hokage may be the leader of the village, but he better not be bribing Kakashi with porn in front of youngsters.

Kakashi's eye widened. "Weren't all the copies destroyed before the Second War?"

The smirk grew wider. "No. I know that one copy of the series still exists. In fact, they are in Konoha's library. I'm sure Bunko will let you read them if there is a reason," the Hokage said, gesturing at the scrolls.

Over Naruto's squawk of "the library!", Kakashi grinned and said, "Team Seven accepts the mission." He then turned and herded the rest of his team out of the doors, Naruto still too shocked to protest. Iruka stole another glance at the Hokage. The smirk had turned into an evil grin. Fervently, Iruka hoped the rest of the day would be uneventful. If Naruto was being sent to the _library_, what did the Sandaime have planned for the rest of the new teams?

*

(1) According to Wikipedia,_ monomi _means "one who sees " and was a colloquial word for shinobi/ninja.

Expect more scene/chapters. I'm a really slow writer.


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